Madam Speaker, housing and the housing crisis are fundamental issues. I talk about them often here in the House. In my opinion, the housing crisis, the language crisis and the climate crisis are the most fundamental challenges that Quebec and Canada are facing. This evening, we are talking about indigenous housing.
I will not repeat everything my colleague said. He did a fine job talking about Yänonhchia', an indigenous-led initiative to provide access to home ownership on reserves. It is a very important project, and I hope that, a week from now, the Minister of Finance will announce in her economic statement that she is providing funding to the initiative. That $150 million in funding would allow the communities to be more self-sufficient. The communities would benefit from that money. Indigenous people could create their own fund to promote home ownership, which is not common. That would be truly important.
As we talk about housing, I feel compelled to mention something that is very important right now. It is cold outside. There is snow on the ground, and winter is right around the corner. I spoke about homelessness two weeks ago when I addressed the House. I mentioned the $250‑million fund, which is related to what we are talking about. When it comes to homelessness and indigenous homelessness in Montreal, half of the people living on the street on the Island of Montreal, as far as we know, are indigenous. Homelessness is a fundamental problem.
In its budget last March, the federal government announced a $250‑million fund to tackle encampments. We were pleased. Everyone was happy that the government was finally allocating this $250 million. It seemed to understand there was a problem. Anyone who walks out of this building will see an encampment within five minutes. There are tent encampments and homeless people in every riding in Quebec and Canada. It is endemic. I have no idea how anyone can allow such a thing to happen.
The government announced a $250‑million fund in March. The discussions with Quebec dragged on, and things started to get complicated. The federal government was imposing bureaucratic hurdles. It was willing to provide funding, but first it wanted to know how big the space and the beds would be, how many pillowcases would be needed, how many pencils would be used to count the number of homeless people using the shelter and what colour the walls would be painted. There were all sorts of bureaucratic hurdles, which meant that the agreement did not get signed and the money was not allocated.
Quebec was prepared to match Ottawa's offer, which was close to $60 million. Quebec was prepared to put in the same amount. There were negotiations. Finally, the agreement was signed two weeks ago, but the devil is in the details. Not only is it winter now, but the deadline for projects submissions for this funding is January 7. I am not making this up. The fund was announced in March. The deadline for submissions is January 7. These projects will not see the light of day until the end of this winter. They will not help this winter. I have to pinch myself. When we talk about delays related to the housing crisis, this is what we are talking about.
I wrote a report that is related to the report on indigenous housing. I toured Quebec. I set out on a pilgrimage. One time, I had a meeting with a group in Saint‑Hyacinthe, I think. I thought I was being so smart. I got the numbers from CMHC and I presented them to the representatives of the community groups sitting across from me. They did not know what I was talking about. They said that the situation was much worse than my numbers suggested. On the ground, the situation was serious. They needed far more housing than what I was saying, and the vacancy rates were much lower than what I was saying. The numbers did not reflect the reality on the ground.
I travelled all across Quebec last year. Over the course of a few months, I travelled everywhere, including Lac‑Saint‑Jean, Abitibi, the Gaspé, Sherbrooke, Montreal, Quebec City, Gatineau and Granby. I went to every region. I met with people from more than 600 organizations that work every day to build social and community housing, to help the most vulnerable people in our country, in Quebec and Canada, find a place to live. These organizations help women who are victims of domestic violence, seniors, people with substance abuse problems and the many vulnerable populations that we need to take care of, that we have a responsibility to care for. I toured Quebec and then produced a 150-page report. The summary is about 20 pages long, and I have it here—